Page 55 of Stockholm (Angel of Mercy #1)

Fuck that. Whatever is going on, she can wear out this fucking tantrum inside where I know she’s safe and then we can talk when she’s making some goddamn sense.

Her weeping continues as I lift her in my arms and turn back for the house, and it breaks my heart to hear her falling to pieces like this. Not because she’s upset, but because she doesn’t want to be here. She doesn’t want me .

“Save your breath. You’re not going anywhere,” I bite out, and she shivers at my words. At least I know she’s listening.

“Please don’t take Molly from me. Don’t hurt her.” She garbles her words over the tears that won’t stop falling. Not only does she want to escape but she believes I’m evil enough to harm her cat.

“Shut the fuck up, Emma,” I snap, losing both my patience and my mind. Part of me understands that she had every right to be scared of me when she first arrived at the cabin. That she should have been afraid of me at one point.

But I’d fucking changed. I’ve driven myself insane trying to keep her safe, hidden. Just for her to try and run right back into the arms of someone who could get her killed. She wanted Eric over me ? After everything she knows now?

My blood is dripping down onto her and she just watches it fall, her sobs starting to slow.

“How could you do this to me,” she whimpers. “How could you make me fall for you like this? ”

“I didn’t make you do shit,” I snap, irritation flaring again as I try to carry her up the stairs without banging her foot on anything. “I fucking told you you weren’t leaving here, if you didn’t believe me then you sure will now.”

Once in her room I place her on her bed, and she stares at the ceiling as if she can’t handle being present in the room with me. I grit my teeth. “What the fuck has gotten into you?”

She ignores me and I growl, close to losing my shit from frustration and anxiety at everything that happened today. “Emma, you need to fucking answer me or I’m locking you back in here.”

She twists, shouting into my face. “How could you do this to me!” Her chest heaves as silent tears fall once more. Hissing, she glares up at me. “They’re going to find us. They’re going to get me out of here and you’ll get what you deserve for this. For thinking it’s okay to treat people this way.”

She’s forgotten. She must have hit her fucking head and forgotten the shit we got her away from. Nothing I can’t remind her of.

“You think I’m the bad guy?” I ask, pulling my phone from my back pocket. She can’t continue on like this. I need to snap her out of it, to keep her from trying to leave. I don’t want to go back to the days I had to padlock her door.

“Here, look.” I order until she looks at my phone. I scroll, letting her absorb everything on the screen. “Your name, Emma. I searched it and nothing , not a single fucking mention.

I scroll down and down. “You’re nowhere. Not one story. Nobody is looking for you.”

I know I look crazy. I can feel the chaotic energy taking hold of my body. For a moment, I’d forgotten that I’m in control here, and if here is where she’s safe, then that’s where she’ll stay whether she likes it or not.

“Your sweet husband never called the police, never called anybody. He doesn’t give a fuck what happened to you. Nobody’s coming, so I guess you’re stuck here with me, aren’t you?”

She doesn’t look at me. “You could have done all this without making me want you so much. I never did anything to you and yet you got off on humiliating me. ”

I want to shake her because she doesn’t make any fucking sense. “ You’re the one who just tried to leave. To run away from me. I thought we were past this. I thought—”

I step back when she leans forward and swings at me again. The movement jostles her ankle and she lurches forward to grab it, yelping again in pain.

“Of course I’m trying to leave, you ruined everything .” She turns to me, venom bright in her eyes. “How could you send those pictures out? Did you think I wouldn’t care? That you could ruin me like this and I’d still get on my knees for you?”

What. The. Fuck.

“What pictures?” I ask, and she just shakes her head.

I crouch down, forcing her to catch my eyes, considering the possibility that she did actually hit her head. Maybe she’s hallucinating, or some other wild shit that would explain why she makes no fucking sense at all. “What pictures, Emma?”

She glares at me. “The folder full of them. Of me in every humiliating position that you put me in. Sent to everyone I know.”

I turn to where she’s pointing at. Foreboding chokes me as I stand and grab the damn thing, opening the cover and freezing in place at the unfamiliar document.

It’s not one of mine and where could she have gotten it?

I flip forward a page, my grip growing tighter on the papers the farther into the stack of them.

She’s right. It’s all pictures of her. With me. With us. Taken in the same house we are sitting in now, which is clearly fucking compromised. Sent from an email that isn’t mine but does carry my name.

“Jesse!” I bellow.

I failed. Them. Her . The breath won’t enter my lungs and panic starts consuming me.

I turn to her with wild eyes. “Emma— baby, I would never do this. You have to fucking believe me. Jesse!” I turn and shout again into the hallway.

I hear his voice approaching quickly. He bursts into the room, pale and wide eyed. “Noah, Bo was locked up. He couldn’t get out. I’ve only just gotten him out of a panic attack. ”

“I know, Emma too. We have to leave.”

I see her shaking her head. “Wait, if you didn’t send those then who did? It’s your email, Noah. It’s your name on everything, your cameras. Don’t you dare lie to me again.”

I scan her body, surveying the damage of the fight we’d just had, trying to absorb too much information at once.

“Someone betrayed us. Our security system’s been hacked.

Someone was in the fucking house .” I turn to Jesse.

“They gave her this.” I toss Jesse the folder and turn back to Emma as he reads.

A few seconds later he’s gripping his hair wildly. “What the fuck is going on, Noah?”

I rally every bit of control remaining in me to think, because he’s looking to me for direction. Emma needs me to handle this, to get us all out safely.

“Call the doctor and have him go to the house in Riverside, she’s hurt. We’ll meet him there.”

I focus on her again. My brain is screaming but I just need to know she’s here with me. That she understands I’m not the one trying to hurt her.

“Baby…” I ignore the alarm in her eyes and place my hands on both sides of her face.

Centering her with me, and I force her to observe my sincerity.

“I’m gonna take care of it. You and Bo will be safe.

” She shakes her head, and I almost lose my shit.

“I’m so fucking sorry.” I pull her closer to me, touching my forehead to hers.

She’s silent, but she lets me hold her for a beat as I try to force the shaking from my hands.

Jesse reenters the room. “Doctor’s on the way, I threw some things together for Bo. We need to leave.”

Bo silently walks in behind him, a haunted look on his face when he spots her. “Emma, I don’t understand what happened? I was trying to get to you but I couldnt…” He shudders and Jesse pulls him into his side.

“It’s okay, everyone’s okay,” he says, suddenly the voice of reason. “Noah, you need to calm down.”

“Calm down? I’m going to kill every man who is a part of this. Look at them!” I motion to me and Bo. “Fucking terrified. She’s had pictures of all of us sent to these piece of shit men so they can do fuck knows what with it.”

I’m trying to stabilize. I don’t want to scare her, but it hits me that they’ve been watching us all together and that makes my hands itch to murder.

Jesse eyes me and then speaks. “I’m calling Dad now to have someone come handle this place. Bo, pack a bag for her, please, and I’ll get Molly in a sec. Emma, hang tight and I’ll carry you to the car.”

“No. I’ve got her,” I say, reaching under her as gently as I can, but every tiny jostle of her ankle makes her flinch in pain.

“I’m going to fix this, Em.” Her eyes are locked on mine and I hold her stare.

“If you’ve ever believed a single thing I’ve said to you, let it be that I won’t let anyone get to you. Jesse, get the door, we need to go.”

In a move that silences some of my directionless anger, she lets her head rest against my chest. I lean my mouth down to whisper in my ear. “I’m so sorry, Em. I thought you were trying to leave. I—I just can’t let you do that.”

Her hand clutches my shirt, eyes closing as we approach the car.

It’s not lost on me that she’s deciding to trust what I’m saying.

After uncertainty, fear, the trauma of seeing herself be exploited.

I’m desperate to make her feel safe again.

Seeing that betrayal in her eyes is impossible to brush off. I never want to see this look again.

I set her as softly as I can in the backseat and climb in behind her. Brushing her hair back, my other hand fists against the seat to give me something to ground myself with. Molly’s cage is tucked into the back with us, and I hear Jesse and Bo throwing bags into the trunk.

Jesse slides in the driver’s seat and grabs Bo’s hand as he takes off down the long, winding driveway, rubbing his thumb overtop of Bo’s.

“We’re going to be fine, everyone. Noah, you need to fucking breathe.”

I pull her head into my lap, leaning down over her to whisper in her ear, releasing a ragged exhale as she looks up at me with that flat look that makes me murderous on her behalf .

“I’ll kill them for this, angel. You’re not going back. I’ll kill every fucking one of them that wants to hurt you.”

The menacing, psychotic words are all I have to offer her, but instead of being afraid she looks like she’s searching for the truth in my words. I take her hand in mine, lacing our fingers and I feel her squeeze.

“I know,” she says, and it does more for me than any thank you ever could.

I know.

She knows I’m here. She knows I’ll avenge her. Protect her. Help shake the dead look that’s haunting her eyes.

She knows I took her without a single fuck given, and dragged her kicking and screaming into the center of my life. And I don’t regret it. I need her trust like I need the fucking air in my lungs.

So I hold her hand, and protect her heart.

Because it belongs to me , and me alone.